There May Have Been A Time
by RememberTheCanon
Summary: There may have been a time when Isabelle loved Jace. But only maybe./ Isabelle did what she had to do to keep her fragile older brother safe. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


**HELLO REMEMBER THE CANON HAPPENS TO BE BACK with a new fanfic. Just a little random oneshot I did awhile ago (blushes). It contains endgame Sizzy, Jace/Isabelle, Jalec, endgame Clace and endgame Malec. WE ALL KNOW JACE/ISABELLE HAPPENED because of those two lines. So this is my take on it. **

_"Are you... are you and Isabelle..." _

_"Isabelle? No. There may have been a time when one of us felt that way, but no."_

It's just a silly crush. Isabelle knows that she's just barely fourteen and Jace is a year older, but she is absolutely infatuated with him. She thinks about him all the time. His bright golden eyes and his long, curly blond hair that Isabelle wants to play with, his golden-pale skin traced by those silver Marks that Isabelle wants to trace with her tongue, his perfect pale pink lips. Isabelle would gladly kiss him, do absolutely anything within her power to make him hers.

The problem isn't her commitment issues. She'd toss aside every other toy, even the really smexy ones, for Jace. And she wouldn't care if it was only a hookup. It would be worth it. And she's almost sure that she could persuade him to stay just one more hour, another day, one more week, one more month, until he does love her. The problem isn't him either. He's perfect and snarky and angry and perfect and bright and just perfect. It's the only word that fits him. And so what if he's a bit cold? Isabelle's so fiery warm, she can make sure he opens up by giving him a little of her fire. He'll break up with the other girl (Chelsea, is it? Oh, yes, I'm sure she's a nice girl) in another day, anyways. He's like that. She doesn't even look traditionally sexy like the other girls that Jace has dated. Just red hair and brown eyes and a curvy figure.

The problem is her brother, Alec.

Alec loves Jace more than Isabelle thinks that she could ever love anyone. He barely diverts himself- Isabelle is just a sliver of Alec's heart, twice as big as her parent's part combined, but nowhere near comparable to Jace's part of Alec's heart. And if anyone deserves something, it's Alec. Alec is just so god-damned selfless. He gives Isabelle and Jace the kills and pushes behind to get them through every battle.

So Isabelle sets him up with that redheaded girl that Isabelle actually likes a little, the girl Jace has been eyeing for a while (it's a double bladed sword, because finally, finally his mind will be off his parabatai and Alec will have a girlfriend, and also Jace needs to learn that he doesn't just get everything he wants and also maybe Jace will maybe see Isabelle and maybe they'll date and everything will be perfect).

But then Alec promptly gives her to Jace. Makes Jace go in his place to the 'blind' date.

She then suspects, she gets it, she understands it.

Alec is gay.

Isabelle gives Alec everything, but this is the first thing that Isabelle has wanted, really wanted. And doesn't get and then just give away. Her interest fades in time, but she remembers Alec needs to be helped, remembers he'll need her hand to hold as she guides him through the crowd of homophobic bastards that is the Clave. He will need her help, her hand, as his father screams at him about what an unnatural freak that Alec is (isn't) that one time he tries to come out of the closet, as he chugs down those bottles, bottle after bottle after bottle until he passes out and the carpet is stained and all Isabelle can think about is how fucked up this family is. If they can call themselves that after the bruises and the cuts and scars.

She hates it, because Alec is older, and isn't he supposed to be the one to take care of her, not the other way around, but she does it.

Then a girl with red hair and bright green eyes shows up, and she just grabs Jace's heart- probably at first because she's short and skinny, maybe not with the curves that Jace would want, but still, pretty. She's mundane, but she's smart and she's freckled and everything Isabelle isn't. She's a girl, and she's sensitive, and she's not absolutely tactless, and she's Jace's type, because she's got a bit of snarkiness to balance her. She doesn't melt at anyone, not even The Sex God Jace.

She's everything Alec is not. Everything that Isabelle is not.

Alec and Isabelle both don't like her, at first- but Isabelle hides it. It's not her fault, and she liked Jace too, once upon a time (although she can kind of sense that this is more than just a crush. Isabelle's a matchmaker, she knows these things). She understands the complete bliss and the hurt. Who is she to interrupt a good romantic love story, anyways?

And Magnus is everything that Jace cannot do, or be. He is Jace in his smooth tone, his attitude, his beauty, in the ways that drew Alec to Jace. And he can love Alec, something that Jace couldn't do, and wouldn't even try to do. Perhaps that's why Alec loves Magnus, in the end. Because Magnus can really love him. No one else. Not Jace, not Clary, not Robert or Maryse. Not even Isabelle- as much as she tries, there will always be those parts of her heart Isabelle reserves for _him, _for Simon, and Simon only.

Or maybe she's just being too hard on herself. That's probably it. Who ever said love was easy, after all?


End file.
